MEDIA RELEASE

Fire/rescue crews responded to a 7:49 p.m. alarm Tuesday (April 12) for a Toyota pickup truck crash about a half-mile South of the 91 mile marker of Highway 11 in the district of South Kona.

Crews found a rolled-over pick-up truck about 20 feet off the makai side of the highway on unstable rocks and brush. The vehicle was secured from sliding further down with a rope and crews reportedly found the driver of the vehicle partially ejected and dead at the scene.

The roadway was closed during the crash investigation. There were no other passengers in the vehicle.

UPDATED POLICE MEDIA RELEASE (4/13/11)

An unidentified man was killed Tuesday (April 12) from injuries he sustained in a one-vehicle crash on the Hawaii Belt Road (Route 11) in the area of the 91-mile marker in South Kona.

Responding to a 7:46 p.m. call, Kona patrol and Traffic Enforcement Unit officers determined that the man was operating a 1985 Toyota pickup truck and traveling south on the highway when he lost control, ran off the right side of the road and overturned.

The lone driver was not wearing a seat belt and was partially ejected from the vehicle.

It is unknown at this time if alcohol or drugs were involved but speed was a factor in this crash.

Traffic Enforcement Unit officers have initiated a coroner’s inquest case and have ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death.

This is all the information available at this time.

Police ask that anyone with information about this crash call Officer Thomas Koyanagi at 326-4646, extension 229.

This is the eighth traffic fatality on the Big Island this year compared to eight at this time last year.

UPDATED MEDIA RELEASE (4/13/11)

Big Island police have identified the man killed from injuries he sustained in a one-vehicle crash Tuesday (April 12) on the Hawaii Belt Road near the 91-mile marker in South Kona.

He was identified as 60-year-old Stephen Mellor of Hawaiian Ocean View Estates in Ka’Å«.

Mellor was pronounced dead at Kona Community Hospital at 12:21 a.m. Wednesday.